For my modeling approach, I wanted the shape to have a duality of being round but also combining prismatic elements to have a modern sharp feel. As a shade structure, I also wanted it to be fairly weather proof so the edge openings have an uptilt so rain wont pour over the sides and instead slide off during an event, and also there is some space on the inside due to the curvature to potentially put a couple benches.
The modeling steps were first, creating the two opening arc shapes, angling them away from eachother, then creating an arc in between them with differing geometry. I then lofted these arcs to create the form shape, and then converted that surface to triangular panels. To create the structure, I designed the space truss from the original lofted shape and used pipes at these truss lines and spheres at the nodes.
Every input is parametric in this. All three arcs created have number sliders, degree slider for the outside arc angle, and scale number sliders to vary potential geometry. For the panels, the number of u divisions and v divisions have a slider which is also connected to the space truss u and v divisions in order to form similar geometry and shaping of the truss structure with the surface. The truss also has variable depth, and the pipe and sphere members also have radius input number sliders to change sizing.